Bridge to Magic: Champions of the Fae
by silverskull393
Summary: Bridge to Terabithia Harry Potter crossover. Harry Potter elements are mostly the world, but not the plot. Jess and Leslie's magic awakens and prevents tragedy and robs them of their kingdom in one fell swoop. In the aftermath they are swept into the wizarding world with all its wonders and pitfalls. Rating for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: Hey all, haven't written in a while and this story just sort of started writing itself, so I figured I might as well share it. This is primarily a Bridge to Terabithia fic combined with the wizarding world of Harry Potter, but since this is wizarding America rather than britain I'm adopting some elements from other stories and making others up as I go. Particularly of note, I'm shoehorning the Grey Wardens from the Dresden files in as the American equivalent of Aurors, and Harry Dresden of the same series is a cameo character as well.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and some original characters when they show up, and have neither interest nor inclination to make profit off this story. It is written for pure personal enjoyment and the hope that others will enjoy it also.**

It was a Saturday, and Jesse Aarons could hardly think of one that had started better. The seasonal rains had finally let up, he'd gotten his chores done early, and his beautiful teacher had invited him on a trip to a museum in Washington DC. Jess had a niggling guilt in the back of his mind that told him he should have asked if his best friend Leslie could come with them, but he ignored it and tried to enjoy himself. He and Miss Edmunds were taking a small break and resting after so much walking when the day went sour. It started with a sinking feeling deep in his gut that came from nowhere. Perhaps the cafeteria food wasn't agreeing with him, he thought at first.

_Jess!_ Leslie's voice screamed in his mind, urgent and primal and quavering with fear and pain. Without knowing how, Jess immediately knew he wasn't imagining things and that Leslie was in danger. For a moment he despaired, knowing that wherever she was, whatever trouble had found her, he could never reach her in time to help. Something strange rose up in him in answer to the call, however, a sensation of power he'd only ever felt before in Terabithia. The power had been latent then, sleeping, but now that Jess's mind called for help the power answered.

"Jess? What's wrong?" Miss Edmunds asked, apparently noticing his distress just in time to watch him vanish with a pop as he felt himself being pressed through a long, thin tube.

The tube was unsteady and lacked direction at first, but Jess felt a power other than his own reach out and grab hold of him, guiding him towards it.

Jess's power strained as the distance fell away. He was almost there, he could feel Terabithia close, but he couldn't quite reach it. Jess surged back into physical space in the fields near his home. Something felt _wrong _as he landed, but he pushed the thought away and hit the ground running, through the fields and the trees to the creek where the rope swing hung. Used to hang, he corrected himself, seeing a frayed stub of the rope swing gently in the wind. _Leslie_! Jess thought frantically as his eyes scanned the water. Blood on the rocks and a flash of color downstream were all he saw. Jess raced after the color, recognizing it as part of Leslie's outlandish wardrobe. He hesitated for a moment when he reached the water's edge, his mind shouting at him _don't do it you idiot, you can't swim!_ but he batted the thought aside and leapt out over the creek, trying to get as close to Leslie as possible before he hit the water.

The cold of the water surged against his skin, pouring straight through it into his flesh, his blood, his bones, and in the next moment he felt the sodden, limp form of his best friend. The icy water crashed over him as the heavy flow knocked away his footing. Jess closed his arms around Leslie as he fell, pulling her tight against him and kicking at the bottom with abandon, doing all he could to push them to shore. His shoulder scraped hard against a sharp branch, tearing through his clothes and into his flesh. Jess blocked out the pain as best he could and surprisingly it fell away, leaving his arm free enough to latch onto the branch and pull his head above water. The branch drew a line of fire down his back as he did so, making him cry out. His other arm dragged Leslie up too, revealing frighteningly pale skin and blood matted in her hair. With herculean effort, and not a little help from the recovering power surging inside him, Jess hauled Leslie up the bank.

Panting heavily for air, Jess rolled onto his back to rest for a moment and noticed with a start that there were swarms of glowing, brightly colored miniature humans flying about with translucent wings. Their high pitched childish voices were mostly cheering, a few shouting "Praise king Jesse!" and "Long live the king and queen!". Others were shouting in anger and pain from further away. Jess sat up and looked around and found they were surrounded on three sides by squogres and little men with red mushrooms for hats. The little folk were fighting them valiantly, but the enemy was steadily advancing. Several of the little folk grabbed him by his clothes and lifted him to his feet. "Help us, my liege!" Cried one of them with a little plumed hat, "We can't hold them off much longer."

Spying a heavy branch on the ground, Jess hefted it and waded into the fray laying about with the branch and trying to hit anything he could reach in the head. A particularly vicious blow snapped the branch near in half. Jess stared dumbly at it for a moment before a group of the little folk alighted on the branch, melting its form into that of a sword that felt warm and _right_ in his hand. Jess renewed his attack, the sword turning it from a routing charge into a gruesome onslaught. Limbs parted from their owners, blood bright red and curdling black sprayed his clothes and pooled on the ground with the gore and offal. Jess's stomach flipped at the revolting sight and he nearly fell over retching. He heaved again as a redcap charged his flank. Jess lashed out instinctively, and the ugly thing's head rolled from its shoulders. A squogre pounced as the redcap fell and very nearly got a piece of his neck before Jess rolled out of the way and the squogre was beset by faeries. Adrenaline pushing his nausea aside, Jess returned to the battle.

The circle of faeries expanded as they started gaining ground with Jess's help, but the dull aches and sharp stings encroaching on his senses told him the battle would wear him down before too long. His arm started aching with exertion, so he switched hands. Swinging with his left arm was awkward, but the tradeoff for strength more than made up for it. A deep burning sting crept into the fingers of his right hand and his left calf and shoulder, pulsing in time with his heartbeat it right knee also felt swollen and stiff, making it harder for him to move.

His reduced mobility allowed the Squogres to gang up on him and surround him, pinning him down even further. It was then that some of the faeries cried out "Protect the queen!". Jess spun around, his blade carving a bloody trail as he did so, and he saw a group of the evil creatures breaking through the fairy ranks on a beeline towards Leslie. Jess shook a redcap off his good leg and hacked at his attackers savagely, trying to extricate himself to go protect Leslie, despairing of making it in time all the while.

Just as Jess's hope plummeted, a mighty bark rumbled across the engorged creek. PT was on the other bank, running swiftly. The next thing Jesse knew PT was leaping across the water, his form shifting strangely as he crossed the midway point. He grew to nearly five times his original size, his legs lengthened, and so did his teeth and claws until he was almost closer to a bear in proportions than a dog. Prince Terrian landed heavily on the near side and bowled into the intruding charge of enemies, snapping off limbs and rending flesh with his terrible claws. Jessie felt a feral grin paste itself on his face in pride at their Prince. It soon turned into a grimace as he resumed fighting, carefully falling back towards Leslie as the ring of enemies tightened. Although Leslie was safe for the time being, even the addition of the great beast of a dog did little to turn back the incoming tide of enemies.

They were almost overrun when three sharp cracks announced an equal number of new arrivals. Jess didn't know who the two men and one woman dressed in grey cloaks with armored leather padding over comparatively normal clothes were, but since they seemed to be shouting strange words and shooting his attackers with bolts of colored light from thin sticks he wouldn't question it. The whole situation was completely bizarre to begin with, and he could worry about puzzling things out when it was safe. The tall man with dark hair thrust a staff forward and shouted "_Ventas_", sending a chunk of the horde flying with a blast of powerful wind. He was the only one with a staff, the other two only had the short sticks. Wands, Jesse supposed, now that he was clear of enemies for a moment and had time to do any supposing. "Relax, kid." The man said with a cocky grin, "The cavalry has arrived. _Fuego_!" At this new magic word, a gout of fire shot from his staff and he drew a half circle, scorching many of the beasts and routing others around the flames. "Chamani, the girl is injured, and she don't look so good. Think you can take care of that?"

The woman Chamani said nothing, but crouched beside Jesse and pulled Leslie's head into her lap, whispering softly in a strange tongue, building a haunting rhythm with the stressed and unstressed syllables. Now that Jess got a better look at her, he saw that Chamani wasn't white like the other two, but was black and had her face painted white in the shape of a skull. She wasn't the first black woman Jess had seen, but suffice to say in a small insular town like Lark Creek there weren't many people of color. As her chant continued, Chamani drew from her robes a jar and a cloth doll in a white dress. Dipping her fingers in the jar, Chamani anointed the doll's head with the oil within, and soon did the same to Leslie. The woman then drew a pin from a band on her wrist and thrust it into the doll where the oil clung to it. Leslie gasped sharply and arched her back, clutching at the ground. Chamani set the doll aside and held Leslie's head gently as her chant slowly wound down.

Meanwhile the other two had apparently made short work of the remaining foes, but strangely Jess found himself more tense than before. "He's coming." Leslie whispered, and the words made him feel it too. The Dark Master was here. Jess's world narrowed to a shadow on the horizon creeping through the trees. Branches cracked, bark frosted and peeled away, and grass and flowers wilted around him, a tattered cloak blacker than black with white eyes cold and cruel. Had Jess truly despaired before? He wondered, for as the Dark Master approached all happy thoughts fled him and he found only cruel memories when his mind went searching against his will. The teasing of the other children. The oppression of Hoager, Fulcher, and Janice. How poor they were. Not having things and knowing their absence sharply. The shame of only having his sisters' hand-me-downs. His father's anger. His father's cold distance.

"Nothing... Nothing crushes us."

Leslie. Jesse held onto that thought tightly, the light of it shining within him even as the shadows grew darker and true night fell though it was surely barely past noon. The trees rattled and the ground shook as the Dark Master was joined in his approach by two huge lumbering figures with the rough shape of potbellied men. Their bodies were lumpy, blotchy and sallow skinned with long, lanky arms, and twigs, stones, and leaves clung to them thickly in patches of dried mud. One carried a fallen tree as a club, but the other was thankfully empty /em/p

_Riiiiiiiiip, crack, snap_

Oh. Well, so much for that. The empty handed troll ripped a tree out of the ground, roots and all, squeezing it so tightly in its hands that the wood splintered and the smaller branches fell away.

"Zander, handle the dementor." The tall man said as he squared off with the one that had just armed itself. "Chamani, we've got the trolls."

Chamani smiled at Jess as she laid Leslie back down gently and stood. PT barked and snarled at the nearest troll before charging it, dodging its clumsy swing. "Good dog." Chamani said with what sounded like a thick Jamaican accent as she raised her wand.

"Expecto Patronum!" Zander shouted, and a silver-gold lion leapt from his wand and charged the Dark Master, roaring as it went. The Dark Master flinched backwards at first, but then pressed forward and batted the lion to the side. Zander tried again with equally poor results.

"Harry, we've got a problem!" Zander said, backing away as the Dark Master closed. "The patronus isn't working!"

"What? I'm a little busy here." Harry said, dodging through the troll's legs. A quick glance told Jess that Chamani was similarly occupied.

Jess steeled himself when Zander stopped just in front of him and Leslie. They couldn't stop him. Jess wasn't sure what he could do if his saviors were useless against the shadowed figure, but he had no intention of letting the Dark Master get to Leslie.

He was close now, the full weight of his despairing aura pounding down on Jess like the weight of the world. Leslie, he thought to himself. Leslie Leslie Leslie. I don't care what happens to me, but she must live. She has to.

The Dark Master reached out towards her, or maybe towards him. It was hard to tell. Jess tightened his grip on the sword.

"I won't let you take her." Jess Snarled, and thrust the blade into the Dark Master's gut. The blade sank deeply, and then quickened in the unearthly flesh until it was unyielding as stone and Jess couldn't pull it free. The Dark Master screeched like rusting metal, like crumbling stone, like fallen trees and dying animals, like the last warm light in the universe flickering out, and drew back with an arched back, convulsing. As he drew away the sword drew back with him, pulling it from Jess's grasp. Jess collapsed backwards, keeping himself between the Dark Master and Leslie even as what remained of his strength fled him.

But the Dark Master was not vanquished by such a blow, for he soon recovered and advanced again only to be blocked suddenly by a pale woman glowing with ethereal light who materialized out of nowhere. The woman grabbed the handle of the blade stuck in the Dark Master, and Jesse felt a sudden and momentous shift of energy as she poured her power into the blade. The sound that followed Jess knew Leslie would've described as Snicker-Snack, but was really more of a _snishnick_. The Dark Master screeched again as he fled, shadows melting off him and leaving a great big hole where the sword had been. As he moved into the forest the light returned and the Dark Master lengthened like the shadows at dusk, stretching into the distance but leaving his dread aura lingering behind.

"Hell's Bells, what the fucking hell was that?" Harry asked, staring after the darkness that had fled over the smouldering corpse of the troll.

"No dementor like I ever seen..." Zander muttered.

"No dementor at all." The newest arrival answered in a lilting voice. "An ancient and terrible shade, These ones know him as the Dark Master. It is not his name, nor does he have one, but it is as fitting a title as any for one such as him."

"And just to round out the day, there's a fairy queen to boot." Harry muttered. "Thank you for your help, lady, but I'd really appreciate it if maybe someone could explain how this clusterfuck started. I mean, where does someone even _find_ that many red caps and ...tusk rats, let ... trolls and big dark ..."

Harry's voice seemed to fade in and out, but Jess quickly realised it was he that was having trouble hearing, and his vision was dimming as well. If the lady answered, Jess didn't hear, for he had entered the restful realm of oblivious unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Author has nothing of note to say.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to any copyrighted figures, plots, story lines, characters, etc.**

Jess woke up in a strange room. It was white and clean like a hospital, but everything else was off. The most immediately apparent was that one of the room's other occupants was sleeping soundly, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he was wreathed in fire, and that the pictures in another boy's newspaper were moving. Aside from that, the smell was all wrong, and the tall man from before was standing near the door talking to three grumpy men dressed similarly and an even grumpier one dressed a little nicer and whose leathers were more decorated. That Harry was there meant Jess hadn't dreamt the whole thing, which was concerning to say the least.

"...So let me get this straight," The grumpier man was saying, "The girl somehow sent a panic message to the boy, who accidentally apparated himself the better part of twenty miles, leaving behind two fingers and a chunk of his leg, ran two miles on a splinched leg, cracked his kneecap and tore a gash down his back saving the girl, fought off nearly a hundred relatively minor but still dangerous magical creatures, and stabbed a shade with a faeblade. Did I miss anything?"

Jess checked his hands and leg, but found both whole. If he had lost fingers or chunk of leg, they had been reattached somehow, and for that matter aside from an all encompassing ache he felt remarkably well for someone who had just survived the laundry-list of yesterday's events.

"Him, the girl, and his dog are all fae touched." Harry supplied. "And apparently the local seelie fae have been feeding off their magic for most of the year."

"Of course! How could I forget?" The man said with biting sarcasm.

"Look chief, I know it sounds unbelievable, but-"

"It doesn't sound unbelievable Dresden, it _is _unbelievable. And I saw the aftermath. I know it happened, and I still can't believe it. Christ, what faerietale did you pull this kid out of? Don't answer that, just... just handle it, Dresden. I'll take care of the politics, but you handle his parents and get him somewhere safe."

With that the strange "Chief" turned and strode away, his three lackeys following.

"Sooo..." Dresden said as he approached, "I'm guessing you heard all that." Jess nodded.

"Where's Leslie?" He asked.

"Don't worry, your friend's fine, she's a few rooms down the hall with my friends Chamani and Zander. You can visit her later... or actually it would probably be better if she visited you, but I suppose it doesn't make much difference. Anyway, I bet you're very confused right now, so I'm gonna drop the basics on you real quick and we can iron out the details after, okay?" Jess nodded again. "Alright, number one. Magic is real and you and I are both wizards. So's your friend and, in a strange way, so's your dog. Number two, magic is a secret; non-wizards, usually we call them muggles, aren't supposed to know about magic with few exceptions. This started to stop things like the Salem witch trials from happening and for the most part keeps things running smoothly. There are a few exceptions, though, such as the families of wizards without wizard parents. So it's important that you don't tell any of your friends about this stuff. You with me so far?"

"I think so."

"Good. Next up, most wizards don't really develop any power or control over their magic until about your age. Typically they start attending special schools for magical children on the year of their eleventh birthday. For you and your friend that will be next year, now that yesterday has put you on our radar as being magical. You two are a bit of an oddity; usually magical children display occasional outbursts of uncontrolled magic from an earlier age, which we detect and it gives us plenty of time to prepare to introduce them to our world, but for some reason neither of you did. It's hard to say for certain, but I think it's at least partially related to what happened yesterday. Regardless, we haven't had any time to prepare for you two, so things are gonna be a bit hectic until we get things sorted. Which brings us to yesterday."

Harry scratched the back of his neck, ostensibly thinking of what to say.

"Yesterday was weird, even by wizarding standards. To start with, I'm a warden, which is like the police but for wizards. When you, ah... Teleported yesterday, we heard about it quickly and my team got sent to investigate. Your teacher-who was quite distraught, by the way-" Jess felt a flash of guilt for how his disappearance must have affected Miss Edmunds. "Told us what happened. We managed to follow your trail and found you fighting off those creatures."

Harry paused for a minute again, then shrugged to himself and continued.

"As I understand it, you and your friend have been going to that forest often, right?" Jess nodded. "Well, it seems that the forest is an important gathering place for the local seelie fae-good faeries, if you will, though even that isn't really accurate- and the not-so-good faeries, the unseelie fae, have had them in a sort of siege, mostly using low level magical creatures to surround and harry them with a few trolls for support. Those would have been the ugly rats and little men with red caps, and, well, the trolls. Since you've been going there, the local seelie queen has been using you two indirectly to fight the unseelie, mostly by using your awakening magical power. About the same time, however, big dark and ugly that you stuck with that blade started showing his face in the area. Mostly he stayed out of things at first. The seelie queen says she doesn't know what he's after, but her wording was slippery and I'm pretty sure she actually does. Anyway, yesterday the unseelie somehow knew you wouldn't be there, probably by sensing your magic leaving the area, so they decided to mount an attack while the defenses were weak. This caused some havoc around the border, which probably would've snapped that rope if it weren't ready to snap on its own anyway. When your friend fell, her magic called out to you, causing your own accidental magic adventure, arriving in the middle of the siege. Then we showed up, and then shadow-pants decided to crash the party. Seemed to me like he was after either you or the girl, or something you had with you. Could've been anything really, but the plan is to keep you both safe and under watch until you start going to a wizarding school, which will have a whole slew of protections to keep his sort out. I think that's the major points. I need to get going, so I can't really answer your questions now, but I'll swing by your girlfriend's room and send her over if she's awake."

"She's not my girlfriend." Jess protested weakly, but his heart wasn't in it.

"Sure, kid. Sure." Harry said with a smirk, and then left.

Jesse waited patiently, but Leslie didn't come immediately. He was starting to drift off to sleep when he heard the door open and watched Leslie enter the room. She looked around, her bright green eyes searching the beds until they lit upon him and lit up, and she rushed over with a cry of

"Jess!"

"Les." He croaked, his voice stumbling past the lump in his throat.

Leslie stopped short of him, cringing,and Jess said, "Come on, it can't be that bad. I feel fine."

"You look like hell warmed over, Jess. I heard... I heard you fought the Dark Master and his minions."

"Come a little closer, would you?" Jess asked.

"Why?" Leslie said, but she was already stepping closer, and Jess answered by ensnaring her in his arms and pulling her in tight. "Eep." she squeaked in surprise, but hugged him back when she recovered from her initial shock.

At first Jess said nothing, and the silence between them began to stretch into awkwardness.

"I thought... I thought..." Jess said, trying to put words to the jumbled mess in his mind and failing. "Lord, never mind what I thought, I'm just glad you're alright, Les."

"I'm glad you're alright too," She said, pulling away gently and sitting in the chair by the bed. There was a slight red tinge to her cheeks, but she was smiling. "I heard you were hurt pretty bad..."

Jess nodded. "Thats what I heard, too. Didn't really feel most of it, I guess. Everything was so hectic I didn't really have time to think about anything. And when I woke up here I only sorta ached all over."

"They told me I almost drowned, and came close to bleeding to death. It's... It's sc-scary to think about." Leslie said, her voice hitching. She closed her eyes as a tear escaped and choked back a sob. It nearly broke Jess's heart, seeing his best friend like that. Jess reached out and took her hand.

"Shhh, don't cry my queen." Jess said, finding himself having a hard time breathing clearly. "It's over now and we've proven once again: Nothing crushes us."

Leslie smiled in spite of her tears and squeezed his hand tightly. Neither of them said anything else, but the silence was comfortable so they killed some time just taking comfort in each other's presence.

"They told me magic was real..." Leslie mumbled after awhile.

"Me too." Jess said, "Harry said we're supposed to go to some fancy school next year to learn magic."

"It feels like something we'd make up while playing in Terabithia."

"Yeah. I suppose... I suppose we'll have to stop going there now. To Terabithia." Jess said somberly.

"What? Why?" Leslie asked, surprised.

"It's not safe, Les. You were there, but you weren't awake. Even with all the help of the faeries, PT, and three adult wizards with magic we've only ever dreamed of, we almost died. All of us, not just me and you. I'm not saying stay away forever, but... We at least have to get stronger first."

"I guess you're right. I hadn't thought of that." Leslie said sadly, already feeling the loss. Jess couldn't blame her, he would miss Terabithia too. But at least they would still be together. He tried not to think about the glimpse he'd caught of her being forced downstream by the current, or of her limp form as pale as new snow stretched out on the pine needle strewn forest floor... and failed miserably. Jess shook his head, and forced himself to think of better things.

"Look on the bright side, Les, we'll be learning _real magic! _The kind you always read about."

Leslie's face brightened instantly, her infectious smile forming on her face. "Yeah! And we'll have all sorts of new adventures, too!"

"I hope not." Jess said half in jest, "Lord, I'm about all adventured out for a while."

Leslie slugged his arm playfully.

A few minutes later a nurse came to collect Leslie and return her to her own bed, but not before Leslie promised to come visit again if they were both still in the strange hospital tomorrow.

Jess slept for a while, and only woke when the nurse came by with dinner. The food was so tasteless Jess couldn't even remember what he'd eaten ten minutes later. Not long after that Harry returned with Jess's parents in tow. His mother fussed over him for a while, and his father seemed at a loss for words, but they didn't stay long. Harry told them he'd bring them to take Jess home tomorrow. Harry returned again without them a few minutes later.

"Your father's not very talkative, is he?"

"No sir."

"Most people give some kinda reaction upon learning magic is real, but I might as well have made the revelation to a wall. His eyes barely twitched, and that was it."

Jess chuckled. "That sounds like him."

"Anyway, I'll get out of your hair shortly, there's just something you need to start thinking about."

"What's that, sir?"

"Enough with the sir stuff, it's just Harry. Or Dresden, if you must."

"What's that,_Harry?" _Jess amended. It still felt odd to him calling an adult by their first name, but he was a bit used to it now with Bill and Judy.

"Better. You need to start thinking about what school you'll go to. There's a few options, and you should be able to get into most of them. This book should cover it, give it a read with your friend when you have the time." Harry said, handing Jess a thin leather-bound book with the title Magical Schooling in the Americas stitched into the cover.

Jess flipped through the book idly and asked, "Where did you go?" Remembering the impressive sight of Harry wielding fire.

"I ah, I'm a bit oldschool. I apprenticed under a master rather than attend a school. I won't say that's not an option, but any one of the schools is going to be safer than that. Considering you and your friend have apparently got the attention of this Dark Master bozo, I'd highly recommend against it. In any case, you don't have to decide right now. Talk to your family and your lady friend about it and try to have an answer by the end of the school year."

After Harry left Jess felt tired again, so he turned in for the night. Lord, he'd slept most the day and still felt tired. He wondered if it had something to do with how healing worked, like maybe healing borrowed resting time from later so you could get your wounds all rested up right quick now and then sleep it off. Jess didn't wonder long, for before long sleep took him.


End file.
